Generating Intelligence from Data-Intensive Assets — CSC World Magazine
Author:
CSC
Talking about data can be as exciting as talking about mud, unless you’re living at the bottom of a fire-torched hill on the third day of a torrential rain storm. Today more than ever, companies and their IT managers are finding themselves at the bottom of that hill, watching as their organizations fill with increasing pools of data.
However, some savvy ones are looking at building enterprise collection and interpretation capabilities where experts and decision makers can pluck nuggets from the waters and use them to improve both their bottom and top lines. Without this ability, organizations run the risk of being swamped in data, unable to nimbly respond to critical issues and opportunities.
“The challenge is getting people to think of the business opportunities around their data,” says Bob Welch, president of CSC’s Chemical, Energy, and Natural Resources Group. “Ten years ago, technology didn’t allow us to even consider this. Now we have the IT maturity to think about how data can benefit an entire enterprise.”
While an organization’s quest to generate knowledge from its data isn’t new, new stresses and drivers along with the sheer amount of data now generated call for better solutions. Take the oil and gas industry. According to Bill Kuzmich, CSC’s Global Energy Sector leader, a major oil company estimates that this year they will be managing more than 100 petabytes1 of data, while a large refinery estimates it has 30,000 input/output subnets, each generating four terabytes of raw data every day.
For oil and gas companies and regulators alike, a key challenge is quickly getting to the data they need. In fact, when CSC and Hart Energy Publishing asked petroleum industry survey respondents last year where the greatest promise of improved productivity might appear, they said, “improved access to technical data and information are most important.”
“People are still fumbling around trying to find data,” says Kuzmich. “The only difference today is that they actually know where the data is — they just can’t get to it. “Regulatory agencies and oil companies alike are wrestling with the amount of data that is required to be submitted. But, gathering the data is not enough. We must now be able to use this information to quickly identify and respond to emergencies.”
Besides emergencies, the ability to quickly access data also helps oil companies bring their oil out of the ground faster, and therefore make a faster financial return. For gas companies, the ability to quickly get to the right data provides an edge in today’s fiercely competitive arena for new resources.
Read the full article in CSC World Magazine.